The lion: A victim of its own power?

狮子：它的自身力量的牺牲品？

Author: Mary Colwell / 原文：玛丽.科尔韦尔
Translator: tugan / 翻译：土干

Lions have padded their way through history, their beauty and
physical prowess inspiring fear and respect. But despite a
fascination with the creatures, humans have managed to wipe out one
type of lion completely, writes Mary Colwell.

狮子以它们令人敬畏的美丽和强壮体格行走在历史的道路上。尽管这个猛兽令人迷恋，人类仍然使得狮子的一个种类完全绝迹。玛丽.
科尔韦尔写道。

The lion motif appears on the insignia of kings, cars,
chocolate bars and rugby shirts - the giant media company MGM has
famously used the roaring creature as its logo since 1924.

Lions are among the most popular subjects for natural history
films, where every nuance of their lives is explored in detail. We
never tire of the thrill of a hunt or seeing cubs playing around a
dozing adult.

Leo the lion, the star constellation of the outgoing and
showy, prowls the night sky. The embodiment of power and wealth,
lions symbolise physical beauty, muscular prowess and
majesty.

狮子Leo， 这个活力四射、华丽的星座，巡游夜空。狮子，这个权利和财富的化身，象征着体格健美，肌肉实力，威严。

Detail of a mosaic depicting the biblical story of Daniel in the lions' den. 马赛克图描述圣经故事丹尼尔在狮子巢穴内。

Historically, Barbary lions, a sub-species of the lions, were
particularly prized as the male was large and sported a long, thick
black mane. The hair stretched from the head to the belly, giving
it a magnificent profile. Everyone who wanted to show the world
they had power wanted a Barbary lion.

Romanemperors desired them as pets and gladiators often found themselves
face-to-face with them in the arena. Spectators revelled at the
sight of human courage pitched against the embodiment of elegance
and strength. The savagery of the lion made it a perfect agent of
execution for criminals and Christians.

In medieval England Barbary lions were kept in the Tower of London.
Their cages were so close to the entrance - Lion Gate - that no
visitor could enter the realm of royalty without first staring into
the amber eyes of a lion. The message was clear - this ruler even
has the magnificent lion under control.

The skulls of two male Barbary lions were found by workmen in a
moat in the Tower in 1937. Carbon dating puts the animals as living
between 1280 and 1385, giving us a glimpse of the physical
condition of animals that lived in London 700 years
ago.

The hole where the spinal cord enters one of the skulls is deformed.
"That should be a nice, well-formed, sub-circular shape," says
Richard Sabin, curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum in
London. "But you can make out that at the top of the hole there's
an infilling of bone, it's actually a pathology, a reaction to
potentially some sort of nutritional stress. As the bone grew it
would have put pressure on to the spinal cord and caused paralysis
and blindness."

Not that this mattered to those who came to stare at them. What
visitors saw was the epitome of majesty.

这并不妨碍那些看狮子的人。来访者看到的是威严的象征。

In the medieval mindset a lion was soaked in Christian meaning
- it represented Christ the King, and it was firmly believed that
lion cubs lay without form or identity in their den for three days
after birth until they heard the roar of their father, which imbued
them with life and energy. It was a clear reference to Jesus lying
in the tomb waiting for his Father to call him to new
life.

The physical splendour of lions merged with the power of God
and the grandeur of kings, gave medieval lions a unique position.

体格强悍的狮子与上帝的强大以及国王的富丽堂皇相吻合，给予了中世纪的狮子独一无二的地位。

But the desire to own lions, Barbaries in particular, meant many were taken from their natural home in North Africa, and over
the centuries their numbers fell dramatically. The invention of the
gun and the popularity of sport hunting in the 19th Century further
reduced numbers and the last wild Barbary lions were shot in the
mid-20th Century.

The power of the lion, so desired by the elite of Europe, was
its undoing.

这个如此被欧洲精英崇拜的狮子的强悍特征使（巴巴里）狮子灭绝。

Current research suggests there are no pure Barbaries left in
captivity - but there are discussions about bringing them back
using DNA from closely related species in India, or selectively
breeding captive lions that contain Barbary genes.

The question remains though - why? Even if technically it were
possible to see a pure Barbary lion once more, it would only ever
be a curiosity and would never be able to roam North Africa
again.

但问题仍然存在 –为什么？假如技术上有可能再现纯种巴巴里狮子，那只不过仅仅是好奇心，巴巴里狮子再也不能漫迹于北非。

"Can we recreate their natural environment or has that changed
for ever?" asks Sabin. "Or will they just be isolated examples of
their species in a zoo that people pay to see?"

“我们能再造它们的自然环境，还是环境无可挽回地变化了？”萨宾问，“或者，它们仅仅作为隔离的巴巴里狮子的样品放在动物园供人欣赏？”

Today, the closest many people get to Barbary lions is in
Trafalgar Square in central London, where four males cast in bronze
guard the foot of Nelson's Column. Designed by Landseer and
installed in 1867, they remain a poignant reminder of our power to
destroy what we most admire.

Richard Sabin, though, believes the remains of the dead
Barbaries still have a role to play. "We decimated them and pushed
them into extinction. The fact that we hold their remains in our
museum collections means researchers have the opportunity to
extract data and put them into a modern context and look at closely
related species that may be heading for extinction and potentially
halt and slow those extinctions."